"Blasphemy! How dare you utter our lord's name?!" A fierce voice rang and the soldiers split to the sides.
A seven foot, sculpture-level muscular man with two curved horns and a long tail placed the crimson axe over his shoulder and glared down at Varian.
"Then how should I address him?" Varian said with a helpless expression. "He who shall not be named?"
"…" The horned warrior tilted his head, considering his words seriously for a second before stomping in anger.
Crack!
The ground under him split like a cobweb and a small earthquake ensued, spreading as far as ten miles.
"Nonsense! It doesn't matter what you're here for since you're going to die anyway, but I, Draxson, I'll grant you to tell that before your last breath."
"You see," Varian glanced at the demons with a bright smile before focusing on the horned warrior. "I'm a hero."
Baang! Claang!
"Stop!" Draxson raised his axe.
The soldiers who took out their weapons and were about to attack halted in their place.
"I wish for a peaceful world." Varian said with an earnest expression. "I am not suitable for war. I think His Majesty The Demon King is the only one who can achieve that goal."
Draxson touched his face before looking at the faces of his closest subordinates.
"Hey?"
"Yes?" Varian tilted his head.
"Does my face say 'I'm a fool' or is it one of my subordinate's?"
"…"
Varian was taken aback.
'Who said demons can't crack jokes?'
"I understand your distrust. It's only natural. But you can decide to dispose of me after hearing my proposal.
Only that arrogant king and princess think of you as irrational, stupid beings who can't think of anything other than blood and battle.
You and I know that the reality is far from it. Demon are intelligent beings. You, a superior demon, surely know it."
Varian said with a respectful smile before making an expression of realization.
"Ahh! So you're making me say everything and teaching your subordinates! What a master! What a wiseman! You surely are a fine hand under his Majesty." Varian clapped, showing genuine admiration.
"Guys, what are you doing? Don't you understand your master's lesson? Or do you not appreciate his wisdom? Hm?" He glared at the hundreds of soldiers.
"…"
"…"
"…"
The golemns, gargoyeles and minotaurs looked at each other before clapping in unison.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
They understood horseshit. But they didn't want their boss to think of them as stupid or disrespectful.
'I am that wise? Really? And I made the plan to teach my subordinates? When?' On the other hand, Draxson was dumbfounded at the round of applause.
Watching his subordinates gazing at him with admiration and reverence, he didn't want to reveal he planned zilch.
"Ahem, ahem. Anyway, you're not a stupid human." Draxson nodded with a pretentious expresion and waved his hand. "I'll let you reveal your proposal before judging whether you're worthy of life or not. Follow up."
"Yes, yes." Varian gave an eager smile and followed the brainless giant man into the Demon King's castle.
Since there were soldiers on either side of Varian and Draxson at the front, the demoness maids didn't panic.
They glanced at him with curiousity and chattered.
After going down a long marble corridor, a pair of huge doors opened and a throne hall, mired in darkness, save for two torches revealed itself.
'The fuck, is he the demon king or vampire king?'
"Draxson," A deep voice called out from the throne.
"My lord." The giant man bowed.
"I know everything. So get out."
"…Y-Yes. My wisdom is nothing in front of my Lord's. Hehe." Giving a sheepish smile unbefitting of his physique, Draxson left.
Varian looked around in the throne hall and noticed that save for the man on the throne, it was all empty.
"Speak. Your so-called proposal. You might have fooled that idiot but not me. All tricks are useless in front of absolute strength. And I am the absolute strength of this world."
"…I want you to win." Varian said. "I stole the military information, their logistic bases, critical resource points and learned their secret plans during my stay. I will you everything. All I want is your victory."
The flickering flames of the torches went off and the hall was swallowed in darkness.
Other than Varian's fine breathing and his calm heartbeat, it was deathly silent.
"Assuming all you spouted is the truth, what gives you the confidence that I would not extract that information out of you than rely on your goodwill?"
Neither the Demon King's voice nor his words were pleasant to hear.
"I have my confidence." Varian replied, his eyes looking straight at the Demon King's despite the artifical darkness that should've clouded anyone but the ruler of the castle himself.
It's something very few demons even know of. But if the roles were reversed and Varian was the master of the darkness formation, the Demon King, despite his supeiror power wouldn't be able to locate the eyes of his opponent.
"…Very well. I will have your information verified and decide what do you with you. For your own good, do not play stupid games. You will only win stupid prizes."
The King could sense that Varian didn't have much power. Compared to himself at Rank 3, the puny enemy was only a rank 1.
But other than piercing through the darkness, the man himself gave a dangerous feeling.
The sharp intuition from being the biggest predator told him he might not be able to kill this man here. And if once he esacpes, he'd only be a disaster.
The cooperation between the two began and not long after, the Demon King's forces crushed the border defense of human kingdoms.
The three heroes rushed to the frontlines and staked their lives, trying to stop the onslaught of the demons and failing.
The demon army seemed to be prescient and knew all their secrets. The costs of defeats began to accumulate and soon, the previous defeats paved way to the present defeats and a vicious cycle was established.
While this happened, Varian sat cross-legged in his room, floating in the air like a magical being.
Through the senses of order and chaos, he sensed a dazzling chain enveloping him like a snake.
It was the restriction placed on his rank.
[Even though it's not directly placed by a divine ranker, it's designed by a system he created. It's not something you can break as a rank 7.] Logos opined.
'Think different, lady logos. You are living with me since what? 10 years and you're still this dumb? I feel so ashamed.'
[…I will just shut up. Do what you want. You were cute when you were young, now you're so punchable. I wish to smack you so bad.]
In a rare outburst, Logos cursed Varian and used the identification of 'I' instead of 'This System'.
If even the eternally stoic system got pissed off, it only served to show how much Varian annoyed it.
'Aha! How the tables turn?! Remember the times when I wanted to bring you out and kick your butt?!' Varian laughed like a villain.
[Whatever. Having you as the holder lowered this system's IQ.]
'So you're at least admitting something.' He teased before checking his status window.
[All Paths
Rank 7: 9,999/10,000]
'Logos, aren't you curious what I'm going to do?'
[…]
'Really not?'
With a sigh, Logos asked. [Okay, what?]
Varian traced the glowing crystal chain locking his paths and said. 'Sure, it's a design of a powerful divine ranker.
But there are three issues.
One, as you said, it's designed by him, but built by the system, which is nowhere as strong as him.
Two, the restriction was supposed to be for only one path, not seven. So, the prohibition on me is imperfect.
Three, technically speaking, this chain of order is designed to suppress the power of my rank, not the rank itself.'
[Clever bastard. If the creator of the world knew about your plan, he'd be pissed.]
'Yep. I can study the chain and advance to rank 8 in both order and chaos paths. Without the slivers, it'd be impossible to decode the design of a divine being but hey, sucks to be him because I do have the slivers.'
[The breakthrough from rank 7 to rank 8 will elevate your powers and the chain suppressing you would not be sufficient.
It will be quickly enhanced, of course. But there will be a small, as in, a very, very tiny window where there is insufficient suppression on you.]
Varian rubbed his hands like a greedy businessman planning a nasty scheme.
'I will be able to use the power difference between a peak rank 7 and rank 8, well, a equivalent to a couple of peak rank 7s.'
[What are you planning to do with it?]
Logos was genuinely curious.
'It's always either demon lord or hero.
But what if no…one wins?'
